A semiconductor wafer is processed to form structures on the wafer surface. The structures on a particular region of the wafer can be linked together to form a microcircuit. The wafer may have many different microcircuits constructed on the wafer's surface during processing. Once the wafer has finished being processed, the wafer is cut apart or singulated to separate the microcircuits into semiconductor ‘chips.’ The chips often contain complex circuitry which needs to interact with external components. The chip's internal circuitry is too minute to be connected directly to the external components. To overcome the external connection issues, lead outs are formed that are connected to the internal circuitry of a chip to a pad or solder ball that allows for external connections. The lead outs are formed in what is known as a ‘redistribution layer’ during follow-on package processing of the semiconductor chips.
Chips from different wafers may be combined together by placing the chips on a surface and pouring a molding compound over the chips to again form a new wafer or a ‘reconstituted’ wafer. The molding compound hardens so that the chips can be handled in unison for redistribution layer processing. A common technique is to bond the reconstituted wafer to a temporary carrier to provide rigidity during processing. However, the temporary bonding and then debonding is expensive and time consuming. In addition, the techniques that use a temporary carrier also require additional processing steps that add to the costs and decrease the throughput for redistribution layer processes.
Thus, the inventors have provided an improved method and apparatus for redistribution layer processing.